I've been feeling a little bored with the game and the lack of unique objects with which to furnish houses, so I've come up with a fun little challenge for anyone lacking in ideas for how to decorate your sims' homes. It revolves around the magical "Randomize" button.

Rules:

The rules are simple.

1. Pick a house, any house. It can be one you built or one that was pre-made and shipped with the game, or even one that you downloaded. Purchase the house unfurnished.

2. Pick a room to start with. It can be any room you like, but you must select a certain type of object depending on the room.

Living Room: Choose a sofa

Study: Choose a computer (You will need to place a desk first and then redesign it after you've randomized the computer).

Bedroom: Choose a bed

Kitchen: Choose a counter

Bathroom: Your choice. It can be either a toilet or a counter

Dining Room: Choose a table

3. Pick the appropriate object and hit Randomize.

4. Design the entire house around that object's random design.


**Notice** Sometimes you might get a very boring couch, but that's what you're stuck with for this challenge. Sorry.

Here is my demonstration.

I chose this lovely premade room in a house in Riverview:



Then I chose a sofa and randomized it. I'm lucky, I got a zebra print:



Finally, I redesign the room around the zebra theme. I suck at decorating, but I am proud of the leather rug and the randomly placed sunshine face:




The goal would be to make the whole house like this, maybe with wicker cabinets in the kitchen and a zebra print fridge, I don't know. You don't have to put the same print everywhere, just let the randomized object inspire you.

Enjoy.

--Lome

Ooo! Brilliant idea. Sounds like it could bring some real fun into designing housing. I'd do this but I'm a bit busy with a legacy challenge at the moment. I'll have to remember this one!

Just started playing sims 3, so I've been creating simmies with specific traits to explore the features of the game, what a great idea for decorating a house and it not end up looking like every other house. I;m bad about many of my houses looking the same, this will prevent that! Thanks for the great idea!

This is a great idea, I'm certainly giving this a go.

Thanks, I'm glad you like the idea. I am the same way and have a hard time coming up with unique decorating ideas. I always do the same colour combinations and pattern combinations. This was an attempt to mix it up a bit and it's rather fun, I'm finding.

Thats a really good idea. All my houses tend to end up looking the same and I hadn't thought of trying this.

ok im in
I just finished the Klepto King Challenge and im 1/2 through the Family Man Challenge lol

eew i just did my random bed .. (I chose the bed as my primary piece as it gives me 4 random colour swatches to play with.1 wood,1 metal and 2 fabrics) its so not me. l normaly do everything white with a crisp tranquil touch.This will definatly be a challenge for me.i think it will end up looking like a big "pimp" house or a 70's style lol. the Tropical Daiquiri (also pictured below) which i made when i first got sims 3 will be the one im re-decorating, there are 3 levels to it

Ok started on the downstairs bathroom, i think this room is finished ,im still tweeking the rest of down stairs, i seem to be spending a bit of time finding the right texture for some items to go with the colours lol the pebble tiles outside are looking cool though with the animal print mixed in ill put up more shots later. i cant wait to see everyones pics, i love swapping ideas and learning new ways of doing things with sims....

update Nice im done "phew" that was hard, i hated the colour swatches i got but i had fun i made a slide show of the finished house if anyone wants to see it. i did remodle the kitchen counter area, i found a nice home on here wich inspired the change , i just cant find the thread i saw it on ill keep looking and eventually give them my personal thanks , i would definatly do it again , only id like to try someone eles house design

Show me more of this house please

Ooh, I like this idea. I'll start sometime this week.

Wow, niloc, I actually really love how that leopard print theme worked out for you! I love the dark wood tiled walls in the bathroom, and the living room is quite nice as well.

I'm going to merge this with a Klepto challenge, and furnish and decorate a house from the first ACTUAL item that I get to put in each room.

Can you use the colors within the prints, wood or other parts of the object to create the overall design?

I didnt. I used the colour swatches as they were given, I didnt take say the green from the flower patten and use that indervidualy, that would be defeating the colour swatch random roll. as it could give you 4 colours for each swatch 16 wow thats a lot of colours.

Wonderful idea,Ill try this at once!

edit: I spent all afternoon on this challenge,using the "Americana" house on Scarborough Blvd in Sunset Valley...I got a horrible bed for the bedroom, a white leopard bedcover and tiki-green sheets! But Im working on it
Due to a lack of rooms I also use the livingroom as the study-room, combining the random (white leopard) sofa with the random (turqoise plastic) computer. The wooden kitchen counter I got had red metal countertops,so I make "tomato" my kitchen theme.... Im trying to tie it up as an "africa"-themed house, putting animalprints in not so tacky places....
Its great fun so far!

Nice! This will make home designing fun again. I'm so out of inspiration, really, so this is a really neat idea, thanks.

great idea, i'm gonna try it RIGHT NOW!!! :D

Thank you so much!
I am horrible at designing houses and this just inspires me to get a random house and furnish it with rooms so diverse it will be like living in a dream world! Thanks again i will post updates and photos as i construct it.

I agree, all my houses look the same, I tend to stick in my comfort zone.
So this is great for thinking outside of the box and keeping things interesting!

I have a question: Does whole house design have to revolve around the one piece of furniture or can you pick another piece of furniture for a different room, randomize it then design that room around that piece of furniture?

Edit: Oh i just reread the rules and i answered my question. But would it still be possible to do what i said above? Or could i take a color from the previous pallet in the other room still randomize the new object but change one aspect of it so it is one of the colors from the previous room?

Tonight I spent a couple of hours re-decorating one of the bin houses for this challenge. I kid you not, Re-designing the last mirror in the last bathroom, my game crashed out. All that work gone. I wish we had a save button while editing/building lots, besides going back to edit town and back into the lot.

Lomelini.....what a cool idea! I've just got the game & I'm really loving all the decorating stuff.

I wonder, would anyone be interested in picking the same house as me and then playing Lomelini's game to compare what we both come up with???

I would be! I've been roughly following the challenge rules for all my houses, going by the way the lomelindi did it, fitting rooms to match the random object. Its fun.

Let me know what house you want to use and I'll give it a whirl.

I do have one suggestion, when I randomized the first pattern on my bed it was the zebra the second was the cheetah, so how about if you randomize and get a pattern already posted you click again?? Just a thought.

Okay, I chose 3 Sun Song Avenue's Myrtle Bungalow.

"Before" pic with my randomised kitchen counter:

Cool Idea, I'm gonna go work on it now =D